Saturday, April 26, 2014

Conversations with my granddaughter about technology

Hello little one. I can see that you are having a good
time with your iPad. Frankly I am amazed at how your little fingers interact so
effortless with the touch screen and how instinctively you seem to know your
way around an apps and to change to another apps when you are done with one.
Grampa will have taken hours to do what you did within minutes and even then
Grampa would need to consult an operating manual (if there is one
available). Things are changing so fast
that Grampa has difficulty keeping pace. Grampa is sure you will not be able to
imagine a world without mobile smartphones and Facetime where not only can you
talk to Grampa but also to see Grampa and show your latest achievement or
demonstrate some new acrobat skills you have developed.

This has not always been so, little one. In Grampa’s
younger days, there were no computers and mobile smartphones. Grampa had to use
a typewriter to write. What is a typewriter, you will ask. To show you, Grampa
will have to take you to a museum! You can still see the large house phone at
Grampa’s house but in time this will be replaced by the mobile phones.

You grew up with rapidly changing technology so to you
are comfortable with it. To many big people technology is a big threat. They
will tell you that technology like the iPad will damage your brain and impair
your thinking skills. They will further espouse that mobile smartphones will
retard your communication skills and sense of community. Do not fear, little
one. Grampa do not believe this. As long as you master technology and not the
other way around, you will be okay. I am sure that when the printing press was
invented, there were a hue and cry about how the printed pages will distort the
thinking of those who read these words, the death of writing and the demise of
memory. Yet, the printing press has been with us for more that five hundred
years and after billion of books, our reshaped society cannot live without the
printed word. People still write with pen and paper. They can still use their
memory to remember things. Within reasonable limits they seem to be able to
think.

Grampa knows that the way you receive and process information
will be different from Grampa’s. Grampa’s mental processing tends to be linear
following the cause and effect progression. Yours will be new processes of
thinking that will take years of
research for educationalists and neuroscientist to understand. However this
will be the way your generation thinks. There is nothing wrong with that. What
you will think of, experience and create, Grampa, with all his imagination,
will never ever conceive of. When you invented a warp capable spaceship, don’t
forget to beam Grampa up!

Use technology but do not let technology be your master.
Use technology but do not be so dependent on technology that you cannot
function without it. Grampa can see that you have no problem with that at this
moment. You do your magic with your iPad but Grampa observes that you still go
back to your coloring pencils and sticker books. Grampa is happy with that
because Grampa is more competent in using color pencils than painting with the
iPad!

Dear Lord, help this little one to develop her mental
processes so that she will be able to use technology as a tool in her thinking
process. Teach and guide her to perceive and receive your truth as you reveal
yourself to her. Amen

About Me

Christian spirituality is the interaction of my daily life, my Christian belief, my thoughts, my dealing with people, and my experience of God. Here are my random musings and reflections on life, God and all that stuff